I certainly would never have the guts to do something like that, but on the other hand, I think people like that are very valuable for anyone who actually cares about real feedback. Evidently in this case (and probably in most cases) that doesn't include the executives, but as someone who doesn't have a lot of confidence in his ability to notice changing headwinds in a large company until there are very visible effects, his sacrifice probably would have been a much-needed wakeup call for me if I were still there.